White Oleander

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Before reading the final chapter of the book, I had to put it down, lean my head back against the couch and think about the experience I've had while reading this book. in fact, the professional prostitute is the only emotionally stable and 'nice' character in the entire 150 pages that i read.

But also having certain ideas about conventionality that would be as hard for her as for her mother, a certain restlessness with how other people do things. As I read this I became overwhelmed with the number of passages that I wanted to secrete away, to take out, and read again. I remember sitting in one of my classes reading the final scene with Claire as the tears streamed down my face. White Oleander is an emotional rollercoaster that will have readers feeling a range of emotions from joy to sorrow. now imagine her beaten, shot, mother in prison for murder, sexually loose, and yearning for a lover three times her age.

After recovery Astrid is sent to live with Ed and Marvel Turlock, and their two small children, essentially as an unpaid babysitter. Furthermore, her writing has appeared in literary journals such as Black Warrior Review, Rain City Review, and A Room of One’s Own.

When Ingrid goes to prison for murdering her ex-lover, Astrid enters the Los Angeles foster care program and is placed with a series of brilliantly characterized families. The daughter of a liberal intelligentsia family, Marina comes to champion the cause of the suffering underclass. Ingrid repeatedly condemns Astrid because of the fact that she communicates with people, discovers and acknowledges their ideals and even makes friends. Meanwhile, Ingrid, poet-in-prison, becomes a feminist icon who now has a chance at freedom--if Astrid will agree to testify untruthfully at the trial.

Ingrid violated the rules of dating she had once given to Astrid about letting a man stay the night.